passions

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of passion.

   The novel traces how her competing passions slowly tear the family apart.

   Reason, the philosopher argued, should govern the passions rather than serve them.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of passion: separate emotions that can pull against one another, or separate objects of love and enthusiasm. In older moral philosophy, the passions are the emotional drives taken as a group and set against reason, and the phrase keeps its article (govern the passions). Capitalized, Passion names the suffering of Jesus, a sense to keep apart from these lowercase plurals.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of passion.

   Note

   A verb form spelled exactly like the noun plural, so the grammar around it decides: he passions is a verb, her passions a noun. Used without an object, meaning to suffer or be deeply agitated, the verb is obsolete and belongs to old or deliberately archaic writing. The living use is transitive and needs an object, because it means giving something a passionate character.

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